Preps / High School Sports

Prep basketball championships wrap: Holy family wins thriller for title

Get prepped. Neil H. Devlin and Joe Nguyen blog on the high school sports scene in the Rocky Mountain Empire.

AIR FORCE ACADEMY — David Sommers scored 24 points, but his defense was the key as Holy Family claimed its first state title since 1998 with a 53-52 victory over Colorado Academy at Clune Arena.

Maintaining that slim lead with 15.7 seconds left, Sommers guarded the classification's best player, Justin Bassey. He already had 22 points and his speed, ability to get to the basket and shooting range made him the obvious choice.

Bassey crossed the time line with Sommers on his hip and dished the ball into the corner. It came right back to Bassey, and with one dribble, he got Sommers off-balance before he launched from the top of the arch. Sommers recovered enough to get a hand in his face, and the shot was a touch strong and hit the back iron.

Game over.

"In the huddle, Coach said defense is what we've been doing all year and it is what we hang our hat on," said Sommers, who scored 20 of his 24 points in the first half. "It's kind of crazy that it came down to that one possession. We played perfect defense."

Class 3A Girls

AIR FORCE ACADEMY — Holy Family rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit at Clune Arena to claim its second consecutive title and sixth in seven seasons.

"We believed, and we reminded each other that we trust each other and we've done this before," Tigers senior center Claudia Pena said. "We had the capabilities, and we just needed a little reminder of that. We came out in the second half and were composed and ready."

The sister guard tandem of Lindsey and Katie Chavez was electric, with senior Lindsey producing 19 points — including the go-ahead 3-pointer — and sophomore Katie contributing 15 points and four steals.

Pagosa Springs (26-1) got 14 points from Payton Shahan and 12 from Taylor Strohecker. Shahan scored 11 in the second quarter as the Pirates built their advantage.

Class 2A Boys

PUEBLO — The Indians held off scoring machine Brady Baer and the Rams to claim their first state title since 2003.

Baer, a senior who broke the state record for most career points Thursday, had 34 points to end his career with 2,627 points.

Class 2A Girls

PUEBLO — Lutheran, with only one senior on the roster, won its first state championship since 1998.

The championship for the Lions (24-1) comes after placing third last year and second two years ago.

It is the second consecutive year in which Yuma (25-2) lost in the championship. Last year, the Indians fell to Akron 53-36.

Class 1A Boys

LOVELAND — Down 44-43 late in the game, the Patriots went on a 7-0 run to take the lead for good en route to win their first state title since 2008.

Caliche won from 2009-12.

Class 1A Girls

LOVELAND — Norwood held on to pull off a minor upset of top-seeded Caliche for the Class 1A state girls title at the Budweiser Events Center.

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended ThursdayWhat the heck is that thing? It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

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